Easy Chocolate Granola Recipe

Ingredients

• Coconut Oil - I love to bake with coconut oil. It's slightly sweet on its own and tastes amazing in sweet recipes like this chocolate granola recipe.
• Maple Syrup - Maple syrup is a great natural liquid sweetener to use when making granola. It coats all the oats and nuts beautifully and after heating up and cooling it creates a crisp, candied texture.
• Cocoa Powder - Cocoa powder is what makes this granola super chocolatey. I dissolve it with the coconut oil and maple syrup before pouring it over the rolled oats and nuts to make sure that every bite of this granola is super rich and chocoately!
• Rolled Oats - Rolled oats create the best texture of granola in my opinion, so I definitely recommend using rolled oats instead of quick or instant oats.
• Nuts and/or Seeds - You'll need a 1.5 cups of chopped nuts and/or seeds for this recipe. I love to use walnuts, pecans and almonds!
• Coconut Sugar - Coconut sugar is my dry sugar or choice whenever I'm baking, but any other form of dry sugar will work. You could use raw cane sugar or even white sugar.
• Mix-ins - While mix-ins are optional, I love the added texture and flavor they add to this granola. To make this chocolate granola recipe even more decadent, you can sprinkle some dairy-free chocolate chips over top of the granola as it's drying. Or for a more tart contrast, stir in some dried fruit such as craisins or blueberries.

See the recipe card for full list of ingredients and quantities.

Substitutions

• Coconut Oil - If you don't have coconut oil on hand, another kind of neutral-flavored oil will work just fine. Try canola, vegetable or lite olive oil!
• Nuts & Seeds - As long as the amount of chopped nuts and/or seeds equals 1.5 cups, you'll be good to go! I almost always have almond, walnuts and pumpkin seeds on hand, so I usually use a combination of those three. Just make sure you chop up your nuts so that they bake evenly.
• Cocoa Powder - You can substitute the cocoa powder for cacao powder.
• Coconut Sugar - Any kind of dry sugar will work in this recipe. Cane sugar or white sugar would definitely work.
• Rolled Oats - I don't recommend substituting the rolled oats for instant or quick oats, but if you're gluten free, make sure your oats are certified gluten free!

1. Include a fat source: I've seen granola recipes that coat their oats, nuts and seeds in low-fat ingredients such as applesauce or mashed banana, but that won't achieve the crispy clusters you desire. You need to include a fat source such as an oil or nut butter.
2. Strategic oven positioning: My favorite way to make granola is to bake it at the top of the oven for the first 10 minutes and then, without stirring it, move it to the bottom of the oven and bake it for the rest of the time. I don't stir it half way through and then allow it to cool completely before breaking it into clusters.
3. Be patient: As your granola is cooling, the sugars and oil in the granola will harden and stick together creating those oh-so-loved clusters! If you try to stir or store your granola too quickly, you'll prevent those clusters from forming.

Storage

This homemade granola, like many other homemade granolas, can be stored at room temperature for up to a month...if it lasts that long! Alternatively, you can also store granola in a freezer-friendly bag in the freezer for around 3 months. Just allow it to come to room temperature before enjoying.